Thursday, August 30, 2012

Going the Distance...for Ice Cream!

I get tons of daily deal emails every day, sometimes it just gets ridiculous. We used to go a little crazy and buy them all the time, but now we choose to be more frugal.  However, when I saw some really cheap tickets to Turkey Hill Experience, I figured we wouldn't be breaking the bank.

Turkey Hill is a Pennsylvania creamery. Down here in Virginia, we get their ice cream and their various iced teas. I have to say that both are pretty yummy. I am a sucker for ice cream and sweet tea. So when I saw the opportunity to go there and check it out, I said "Heck yeah!"

Turkey Hill is about a 2 hour drive from our place. We decided on last Sunday, and what do you know...it was raining! Apparently we need to take a road trip to the midwest, because everywhere we drive to, it rains. We could eliminate the drought in just a few road trips! Even with the rain, it was not too terrible of a drive. Once we got into Pennsylvania, I started seeing sunflowers everywhere, even at the rest stop.


When we pulled up to the place, I was surprised that it was not part of the actual Turkey Hill factory. The Turkey Hill Experience is in a big building, which is shared with other businesses. This did not deter our desire for ice cream. 

Once inside, there was a lot of reading to do. There is a lot of history about the area and the creamery. There is no official tour, it is done at your own pace and in whatever order you want. In our case, it was done at the pace and choosing of our 3-year old. We tried some of their different beverages first. I was surprised that their tasting consisted of one employee pouring little cups from jugs in a mini-fridge behind her. I guess I was expecting something like they have at World of Coke. I tried the cherry-pomegranate black tea. YUM.

Then on to the most important part, ICE CREAM. They did not have every flavor available (BUMMER) but what they had was yummy. I tried the Philly Graham Slam on my first go round, then on the way out I had the chocolate chip cookie dough. I really enjoyed them both, but they don't put enough cookie dough in their version. I don't think anyone can beat Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. (*Mental note...see if Ben & Jerry's has a tour)

The rest of the tour was a lot less uneventful. They had these touch screen area where you can design your own ice cream flavor and name it. Mine is called French Monkey. It has chocolate, hazelnut and bananas. It reminds me of the banana Nutella crepes we had when we were in Paris.


What would have been incredible is if they could make this for you so you could actually try it. Maybe that's asking a lot, but it would be pretty sweet.

There were lots of other ice cream making related activities throughout the tour, including milking a fake cow. Fletch was probably confused that water was coming out of the cow and not milk. 







It did not take us long to do the tour, which is why this place is really only good to do if you are already in the area. We had planned to hit up the train museum that was nearby, but we did not leave the house early enough. Since it was Sunday, all the Amish markets were closed too. It was raining the whole day, so that probably wouldn't have been all that fun anyway. It would also be a great place to stop if you were on a road trip through the area.  So we basically spent 4 hours in the car for an ice cream run, but hey, we got out of the house on a rainy day.









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